Hacker News Reader

Comment by rjeli | Hacker News Reader

Please take a look at the Human Rights Watch reports[0] for USA, China and Russia. I honestly wonder how you can reach such a conclusion about freedom of expression and human rights in those countries.

[0] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016

View on HN

Mmm, I'd agree but the parent is specifically talking about surveillance, not about all human rights, and it's true - the US likes to condemn cyber-espionage and surveillance while simultaneously spying on the entirety of the planet and attacking/infiltrating the planet as it sees fit.

Human Rights Watch being an American organisation, led by a member of the US power elite (e.g. Goldman Sachs, Soros' OSF) might have something to do with it?

Nah, perish the though!

HRW funding and staff indeed looks surprisingly US-biased. But Amnesty and PEN also score the US a couple notches above Russia and China.

As someone who resides in the USA, I'd rather China or Russia have access to my data, regardless of any abuse of human rights. Unlike the US, they're extremely limited in how they can use my data to harm me.

The problem is that they can sell your data to someone more interested in targeting you specifically. If that happens within the US there is a means to litigate the guilty parties. Outside, you're SOL.

You don't need to look there, at all. Just look at the US aggressive wars and subversive activities in this century, e.g. Iraq, Libya and it becomes clear that the value of human rights abroad from the US point of view is exactly 0.

Iraq was a disgrace but bringing up Libya means you are either ignorant or being disingenuous. Gaddafi had imminent plans to commit another cleansing of the opposition. It was always going to be a lose-lose situation for human rights. Doing nothing is not always the right answer.

So how do you rate the situation in Libya before and after Gaddafi?

Bad with him there. Much worse with him gone.

It's better to state the reality not the myth sold by USA : Ghadafi wasn't about to commit anything else than what US allies have already done.

Now Libya is a failed state thanks to US and HRW lies.

By calling Iraq a disgrace you are effectively calling the 9/11 a micro-disgrace. That's how these two differ in the order of numbers of lives lost.

Human Rights Watch. By Americans for Americans.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com